Hi all. I’m trying to remember the name of a short story I read years ago. And since my fellow dopers were so awesome at helping me remember the Burr Woman story, I’m hoping it will work out again. Here’s what (I think) I remember about it:
The protagonist was a guy I’ll call Bob (I don’t think that was his real name in the story, but I could be wrong). Bob was a relatively young man traveling as part of an expedition or something, and they ended up in some mountains; I want to say the mountains were in Asia somewhere, like the Himalayas or something, but I don’t know for sure.
Anyway, Bob’s party gets attacked by bandits or something, and most everybody dies (maybe), and Bob gets captured by some thugs, who turn out to be hypnotized slaves of a very old, very evil man, who we’ll call Zeke. Zeke keeps himself alive eternally by magically swapping bodies with a young man every time he gets old, and of course that’s what he wants Bob for.
So, Zeke gets out a pair of wheels with intricate patterns on them, orders his hypnotized slave-guards to obey Bob as their supreme leader from now on (as soon as the switching process is done, of course), and straps Bob and himself to a slab so they are both staring at the wheels, which the slaves start spinning. Bob quickly falls under the hypnotic spell of the spinning pattern and the next thing he knows, he’s in the old guy’s body. Oh no!
So Zeke-in-Bob is released and he revels in his new youth for a moment before he suddenly starts gasping and clutching his chest. “Aha, villain!” cries Bob-in-Zeke. “I have a medical condition (heart attacks, or deadly asthma, or something, I forget the details) that the doctors told me would kill me the next time it happened! So ironically it is now I, Bob-in-Zeke, who shall outlive you, Zeke-in-Bob! Enjoy the flames of hell, miscreant!”
But Zeke-in-Bob is not beaten so easily! He can switch back before this body dies! He has his slaves slam Bob-in-Zeke back onto the slab, stumbles over to join him, and wham, the wheels spin up again and BOOM, Bob is back in his own body. At which point, despite the pain, he chuckles and tells Zeke: “I can’t believe you fell for that, it was just one of the minor (but excruciatingly painful) asthma attacks (or something) that I get when I’m up in a high altitude like this! But thanks for giving me my own young and (mostly) healthy body back, chump!” He knows Zeke will probably be angry enough to kill him now, but he doesn’t mind because at least Zeke won’t be getting his body.
“Foul rogue!” cries Zeke. “Guards! Seize him!”
But the slaves don’t move, because ZEKE FORGOT TO TELL THEM TO OBEY HIS OLD-MAN BODY AGAIN BEFORE SWITCHING BACK!
Realizing this, Bob says something like “Kill him,” and one of the slaves leaps forward and chops old Zeke to bits instantly. Thus Bob wins, and the story ends with Bob and the former slaves making their way back down out of the mountains and toward civilization.
So, does that sound familiar to anybody?